2010 Manchester murder victim rented from woman allegedly beaten by own son

CONCORD - A state prosecutor said Tuesday that he has investigated the link between the beating of a woman in Nashua Sunday night and a two-year-old unsolved murder in Manchester.

Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Agati said he spoke with Manchester police this week about the October 2010 murder of Lynne Brennan after reading a New Hampshire Union Leader article about the beating of Alicia J. Flanders, allegedly by her son, Thomas Foden. Flanders found Brennan dead in the Manchester home Flanders rented to Brennan.

"I read the article and that name did ring a bell," Agati said of Flanders.

Foden is accused of pushing his mother's face into a glass cabinet and inserting his finger into her eye.

Brennan was found murdered nearly two years ago in her River Street apartment. She was going through the final stages of a drawn-out and bitter divorce from her husband John Brennan, according to family. Police believe Brennan had been dead for a few days before she was found by Flanders.

Agati said he called Manchester police to discuss the two cases.

"Other than that, there really is no change in the course of the (Brennan) investigation," he said.

Agati declined to say whether Foden is a suspect or has been ruled out as a suspect in the Brennan murder.

"We don't comment on anyone being ruled in or anyone who has been ruled out," he said.

He said the Brennan case remains an open, active investigation.

"This is not a cold case," he said. "It has not been referred to the Cold Case Unit."